1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sewing machine having a sewing unit and a display unit, and more particularly to an improved display unit which attracts an operator to a display by displaying an animation information in association with displaying various error or guide messages on the display during operation of a sewing machine.
2. Related Art
A conventional sewing machine has a stitching unit for stitching on a workpiece (cloth), an embroidery unit, a liquid crystal display and a control panel. The stitching unit has a sewing needle movable in a vertical direction and a needle thread catcher for stitching in cooperation with the needle. The embroidery unit drives an embroidery frame on which the workpiece is removably mounted, to move in two directions perpendicular to each other independently. On the display, not only selectable various embroidery patterns to be embroidered, but also various messages and information are presented.
JP-A-1-129877 discloses an information display unit for a sewing machine. The sewing machine has a liquid crystal display and a control unit having a ROM, in which utility stitch pattern display data, general usage information display data (e.g., information on how to set a thread to the sewing machine), stitch information display data (e.g., buttonhole hemstitch, zigzag stitch) and error information warning display data are stored. The information display unit reads in these data so that the data appear on the display as the need arises. However, as each information is displayed as a static image, the static image is generally not so conspicuous and does not necessarily attract the operator. Therefore, the operator may not pay attention to the display during operation of the sewing machine, resulting in that the operator may miss a message appearing on the display, even if the message is an error message which is very important and indispensable for the operation of the sewing machine.
JP-A-4-221595 discloses an automatic multi-pattern embroidery sewing machine having a display on which various stitch patterns appear. In the sewing machine, several combinations of a series of formation patterns relating to objects such as bird, wind or moon are memorized. A desired combination of the formation patterns is selected by a pattern select switch and collectively shown on the display to be embroidered on a workpiece. However, these patterns are also static images having little impact, and do not necessarily attract the operator to the display either.
JP-A-5-127948 discloses a monitoring unit for a sewing machine. If an error occurs to any monitored device, colored animation information corresponding to the kind of the error appears on a display of the sewing machine. Further, when an operator or a service engineer need help information about the error, the animation help information corresponding to the error appears on the display. However, colored animation information in a lot of frames need to be stored in the monitoring unit for error indication in one-to-one correspondence with various possible errors. Therefore, an animation information memory of the monitoring unit has to be large. Further, it takes several seconds to several tens of seconds, for example, to inform the operator that an error has occurred.